11% increase in UK online search for Hotels in long-haul destinations

London, 3 August, 2010 - The latest quarterly
analysis of UK consumer online search data in relation to hotels,
suggests those in long-haul destinations, in particular New York,
Orlando and Las Vegas, are proving popular with searchers. The
research, 'Hotel Sector Report June 2010', by Greenlight, a leading
independent search and social marketing and consulting technology
firm, found 2.1 million of the 10 million UK consumer internet
searches for hotels in June were for lodgings located in long-haul
destinations, an 11% increase on March levels.

Greenlight used industry data and proprietary technology to
identify and classify 356 of the most popular global destinations
that consumers in the UK booked hotels in. It profiled 1,300 search
terms they used to find hotels to each location and how popular
each search term was. Greenlight also used the data to compile its
quarterly league tables charting the 60 best performing websites
and brands, in both natural and paid search, based on their online
visibility and share of voice in relation to the most popular
search terms identified. The 15 most proactive brands and
aggregators in social media were also ranked.

Some key findings reveal:

Overall, the volume of searches performed for hotel-related
keywords in June decreased by 11% since May, when search volume
totalled 11.2 million. Greenlight attributes the slight decrease to
the seasonality of the travel industry, saying it was likely more
consumers searched for breaks during the Whitsun and May bank
holidays than in June

The term 'Hotels' was searched for 2.2 million times accounting
for 22% of the total search volume

London was the most searched for location, with the term
'London hotels' accounting for 10% of all hotel-related
searches

There was an upsurge in the use of long-haul destination terms.
Interestingly, 'Las Vegas hotels', 'New York hotel' and 'Orlando
hotels' were all searched for 135,000 times in June, cumulatively
accounting for 18% of all long-haul hotel-related searches.
According to Greenlight, this increase in queries is likely to be
influenced by the continued recovery of the pound against the
dollar

In natural search, TripAdvisor attained a dominant share of
voice in the long-haul hotel segment. TripAdvisor (.co.uk) achieved
72% visibility through ranking at position one on page one of
Google results for 114 keywords and featuring at position two for
the term 'Orlando hotels'. Its counterpart, TripAdvisor (.com)
achieved 66% visibility through ranking at position one for 17
keywords analysed

By comparison, Expedia achieved lesser share of voice - 39%,
because it appeared at position one for only 13 of the keywords
analysed including the term 'New York hotel' - one of the most
searched for terms, but it attained lower visibility for other high
volume driving terms

In paid search, ebookers, booking.com and hotels.com were the
three most visible advertisers for long-haul hotel keywords
achieving 63%, 61% and 48% share of visibility, respectively.
Notably, Hotels.com increased its visibility by 22% replacing
Expedia which dropped to fourth position with a 38% share

(Table 1 below shows Greenlight's top 10 of the 60 most visible
hotel websites in both natural and paid search. If you are unable
to view it please contact the press office)

Table 1: Top 10 of the 60 most visible hotel websites in both in
natural and paid search, UK

No.

Website/Advertiser

Natural Search

Paid Search

1

booking.com

32%

87%

2

laterooms.com

63%

48%

3

hotels.com

25%

66%

4

expedia.co.uk

38%

48%

5

lastminute.com

45%

28%

6

ebookers.com

0%

49%

7

tripadvisor.co.uk

40%

0%

8

travelodge.co.uk

19%

15%

9

travelsupermarket.com

7%

23%

10

premierinn.com

29%

0%

Source: Greenlight

To gauge social media interaction with brands, Greenlight
monitored the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the top 15 brands in
its integrated league table (Table 1, above), in order to assess
how many 'fans' and 'followers' each has. Greenlight ranked brands
based on the cumulative value of their 'fans' and 'followers', a
score which it terms the Social Media Popularity Index (SMPI). It
further analysed the proactivity of brands by considering the
number of 'posts' and 'tweets' brands produced for consumers to
interact with in June. Greenlight's SMPI reveals:

TripAdvisor (.com), due to its global audience, was the most
followed brand, with a combined following of over 144,000 on
Facebook and Twitter. It was also the most interactive brand, as it
cumulatively produced 194 'posts' and 'tweets' in June. Content
included latest travel news, special features and consumer travel
polls

Brands such as Expedia, Travelodge and eBookers utilised their
social media accounts very little. In June, Expedia had a following
of over 5,000 on Twitter, yet it did not produce a single 'tweet'
and therefore missed out on vital interaction with social media
consumers

By contrast, PremierInn used its Twitter account as a customer
service contact by directly answering consumer queries and
complaints

(Table 2 below shows the most visible brands in social media. If
you are unable to read it, please contact the press office)